Whatever Works
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: June 19, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
16
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
TimeRichard Corliss
No kidding: this is the feel-good movie of the year and a cinematic soul massage. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a slight-but-enjoyable effort, and it features something a little on the surprising side: an optimistic ending. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Yellnikoff, played with perfect pitch by Larry David. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
What makes Whatever Works so enjoyable, aside from the unusually high number of effective one-liners the script contains (this is Allen's funniest movie since Mighty Aphrodite), are its supporting characters. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Easily one of the loosest, most satisfying comedies to hail from the prolific writer/director in a while. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
At one and the same time it feels like a decent-but-not-great film of his '70s period and a perky and tart entry in his modestly successful revival in the last half-decade. Neat trick. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
Ends up being a pleasantly surprising blast from the past, a delightful and amusing touchstone to Allen's comedic prime. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Though Clarkson acquits herself reasonably well in a terribly conceived role, her entrance interrupts David’s hilariously twisted mentorship of Wood and sends the movie careening in a far less promising direction. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineHenry Stewart
As it unfolds, Whatever Works assumes an increasing note of poignancy, becoming a quasi-optimistic story about securing whatever little love you can in this fakakta world. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Whatever Works feels like something out of time and, worse, out of step. Hell, Allen wrote the script back in the 1970s for Zero Mostel. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Features enough genuine laughs to give it decent commercial traction. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
There was always a dreaminess in his vision of the city, but now it feels as distant as the polished floors and the Deco furnishings of the Fred Astaire movies that Boris finds--of course--whenever he turns on the TV. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
It's hard to get past the primitiveness of Allen’s fantasies. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
It isn't the laugh riot of the year. Read full review
50
VarietyRonnie Scheib
This far-fetched, deliberately artificial game of musical chairs -- in which mismatched characters encircle, attract and repel each other -- feels forced, often losing itself in excess verbiage. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The fact that Allen wrote the script in the '70s explains something about why his newest movie feels so old. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Woody, please: Go back to the European locales that so energized you of late. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Whatever Works is very minor Woody, querulous, fitfully funny, and removed from any shared reality. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
As Whatever Works creaks along, the attention-getting nastiness of the first half dissipates and it turns into just another Woody Allen overacted sex farce. Of all the insults hurled about in the film, perhaps the worst is its pandering conclusion. What exactly does Allen take his audience for? A bunch of mindless zombies? Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is Allen's weakest film in years. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Blown opportunity. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
None of it works. Or it works too hard. Whatever. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
While the film is slightly better than similar efforts Allen made between the ’90s and his recent time in Europe, it’s both too broad and too shallow. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A sour romantic comedy, only sporadically amusing. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A belabored trifle that's occasionally amusing but often just bewildering. Read full review
40
SlateDana Stevens
Most disheartening of all is that, after shooting four films in a row abroad, Allen seems to have lost his feel for New York locations. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
How big a bastard can Woody Allen build a screenplay around and still generate a modicum of audience goodwill? The answer: not this big. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie on the whole is joyless. Whatever Works doesn’t. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Whether you want to trace this romance back to "La Strada" or Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn is your business, but on-screen it never registers as more than a writer's conceit. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
"Hello, I Must Be Going," sings Groucho Marx in a clip from "Animal Crackers" at the start of the film. If I'd known what followed, I would have followed his advice. Read full review
0
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note. Read full review
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